Mayor Scott Gillingham will seek provincial government support to build a fourth emergency service dedicated to mental-health and addiction crises, the Free Press has learned.
In an interview, Gillingham said responding to calls involving people facing mental-health and addictions challenges has put an enormous burden on police, fire and paramedic services. As a result, the mayor said it’s time to consider a fourth arm of emergency services where mental-health professionals would be dispatched to deal with people in crisis and provide ongoing support in the community.
Gillingham acknowledged that there are similar programs being run in other cities that utilize mental-health professionals and peer counsellors, many of whom have lived experience.
“When someone calls 911 and there’s a crisis, they need a specific response,” Gillingham said. “And I think it’s up to us not just to send the (first) available response — whether it’s police, fire or paramedic — but to ensure we are doing all we can to get that individual and the people in that situation the right response.”
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Mayor Scott Gillingham says it’s time to consider a fourth arm of emergency services where mental-health professionals would be dispatched to help people in crisis.
Mental-health advocates and many professionals have argued for some time that a fully civilian response — one that does not involve police in any capacity — is desperately needed to de-escalate mental-health and addiction crises and provide ongoing community-based support.
It’s an argument that has resonated with Winnipeg’s mayor.
“Sometimes the police response is needed, sometimes it’s a firefighter, sometimes it’s a paramedic,” Gillingham said. “But other times it’s a mental-health worker that is needed. And right now, the mental-health worker, specifically or alone, is not an option available to us when we’re dispatching 911, and so I’d like to see us explore that.”
One of the biggest challenges facing Gillingham will be convincing the NDP government to pay for the service. Health care is a provincial responsibility.
“I would envision this fourth agency would be a health-care agency… that would be funded by the province,” he said.
“I would envision this fourth agency would be a health-care agency… that would be funded by the province.”–Mayor Scott Gillingham
Right now, the majority of mental-health and addiction calls are channelled through Winnipeg’s 911 call centre and assigned to either the Winnipeg Police Service and the Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service. WPS has said it responds to more than 20,000 mental-health wellness checks each year, an enormous number that has placed added pressure on already-strained police resources.
In 2021, Shared Health and the Winnipeg Police Service launched the Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis, a pilot program that deployed teams comprised of a mental-health professional and a plain-clothed police officer to calls that did not involve violence or criminal behaviour.
In its first year, ARCC was deemed to be a qualified success. It responded to 882 incidents involving 530 different individuals. More than 80 per cent of the calls were resolved without any additional involvement from police and more than 90 per cent of the people who came into contact with the program’s teams were able to remain in the community, rather than being admitted to a health-care facility.
Despite ARCC’s success, mental-health advocates continue to lobby for a 100-per-cent civilian response, which could be used to defuse situations before they become full-blown crises. Local advocates point to programs in Toronto and British Columbia as examples of how the approach can divert thousands of wellness calls from regular 911 channels.
Gillingham noted that, in addition to the ARCC co-funding approach, the city delivers paramedic services via the WFPS that are paid for by the provincial government.
Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith, who also has responsibility for mental health, told the Free Press she is interested in talking to Gillingham about his proposal and believes it could be a good fit for her department’s major overhaul of mental-health services.
Part of that plan, Smith said, is to hire 100 new trained mental-health workers to improve access to services. The details will be revealed in the coming months, but she said there will be opportunities to discuss a more robust approach to crisis intervention.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith believes Gillingham’s proposal could be a good fit for her department’s major overhaul of mental-health services.
This week the province revealed it had hired 22 mental-health workers to provide wrap-around support to people with chronic mental-health challenges in an effort to keep them housed and out of jail, hospital or homeless encampments.
The 100 new mental-health workers would be in addition to the 22 involved in that program, Smith said.
“We’ve been listening to the City of Winnipeg, we’ve been listening to front-line organizations, and we’ve been listening to those who have been dealing with their mental-health issues,” she said.
“We’ve taken all of that into consideration when we’ve been thinking about (how to use) these 100 mental health workers.”
Toronto has already begun describing the Toronto Community Crisis Service, which involves teams of trained crisis workers, as the the city’s fourth emergency service. Started as a pilot project in early 2022, TCCS has grown to cover most of metropolitan Toronto through a series of partnerships with the Canadian Mental Health Association and community agencies.
A similar approach is being taken in B.C.’s lower mainland, where the provincial branch of the CMHA and other agencies oversee the Peer Assisted Care Teams, which involve a mental-health professional and a trained civilian with previous lived experience struggling with mental health and addictions.
dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com
Dan Lett
Columnist
Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan.
Dan’s columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press’ editing team reviews Dan’s columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.